Oklahoma

August 17, 2013

Texas A&M will open the season as The Associated Press’ highest-rated college football team from the Lone Star State, with the Aggies grabbing the No. 7 spot in today’s AP preseason poll.

A&M is one of five Southeastern Conference schools that earned Top 10 spots, led by top-ranked Alabama. No. 15 Texas and No. 20 TCU rounded out a modest showing by Texas-based schools in the initial Top 25 rankings.

For A&M, today’s placement marked the Aggies’ loftiest preseason perch in the AP poll since the 1999 season, when the team also started at No. 7. The Aggies, who return Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel and other key playmakers from last year’s 11-2 team, were sixth in the preseason coaches poll, released earlier this month.

As a group, Big 12 schools were shut out of the Top 10 spots, with No. 13 Oklahoma State earning the most votes from pollsters. The Cowboys will open ahead of No. 16 Oklahoma for the first time in the AP rankings. But OSU received the lowest starting point of any Big 12 school to begin the season as the league’s highest-rated team since the conference was formed in 1996.

Two other Big 12 schools, Baylor (27th) and Kansas State (31st), received votes but finished unranked in the initial poll.

Six teams from the SEC, the conference that has produced the last seven BCS national champions, were ranked ahead of Oklahoma State. The SEC, with six, placed the most teams of any league in the initial poll, followed by the Pac-12 (five), Big Ten (five) and Big 12 (four).

Notre Dame, which fell to Alabama 42-14 in last year’s BCS National Championship Game, opened at No. 14.

For Alabama, which received 58 of 60 first-place votes, it marked the fourth time in school history for the Crimson Tide to begin the season atop the AP poll. In the three previous occasions (1966, 1978, 2010), Alabama went on to win the title only in 1978.

The last team to begin the season atop the AP poll and finish there was Southern California in 2004. The two first-place votes that did not go to Alabama were split between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 5 Georgia.

August 01, 2013

Texas A&M landed the No. 6 spot in today’s preseason coaches poll, the school’s highest starting point since 1995 and part of an SEC blitz that saw league teams capture five of the Top 10 spots, including the No. 1 ranking that went to Alabama.

Alabama, the two-time defending BCS champ, earned 58 of 61 first-place votes to finish comfortably ahead of No. 2 Ohio State with three top votes. Rounding out the Top 10, in order, were Oregon, Stanford, Georgia, A&M, South Carolina, Clemson, Louisville and Florida.

The Big 12 landed four teams in the poll, with TCU opening at No. 20 and Texas at No. 15. Oklahoma State, at No. 14, received the most support from voters among Big 12 teams (726 points), followed by Texas (622 points) and No. 15 Oklahoma (620 points). TCU finished with 400 points. Big 12 schools Baylor and Kansas State were unranked but finished among the top 30 schools in total votes.

For the Aggies, who posted an 11-2 record and finished No. 5 in both final polls last season, the starting spot is A&M’s highest since 1995, when the team finished 9-3 in the final season of the Southwest Conference. A&M returns quarterback Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, and was the only school to defeat Alabama during the Crimson Tide’s 13-1 march to last year’s BCS title.

SEC schools placed the most teams in the inaugural poll, with six. The Pac-12 had five teams, with UCLA (No. 21), Southern California (No. 24) and Oregon State (No. 25) grabbing thee of the last five available spots. Notre Dame, which lost to Alabama 42-14 in last year’s BCS title game, opened at No. 11.

May 31, 2013

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced today that his league will distribute a league-record $198 million in revenues to its 10 members for the 2012-13 school year.

The revenue distributions, announced at the conclusion of the Big 12 spring meetings in Irving, break down to approximately $22 million per school for the league’s eight charter members. First-year members TCU and West Virginia each will receive half-shares of $11 million as part of a four-year phase-in agreement put in place when those schools agreed to join the Big 12.

Even as half-share recipients, the $11 million represents a significant jump in revenues from last year for TCU and West Virginia. TCU was a member of the Mountain West last year, where it never earned more than $2 million in any school year. West Virginia competed in the Big East.

For the other members, the $22 million is the largest per-school take in Big 12 history. It also exceeds today’s announced distribution of revenues in the Southeastern Conference, which passed out $20.7 million per school ($289.4 million total) to its 14 members, including Texas A&M.

Bowlsby said the Big 12 distribution numbers, derived primarily from television contracts, bowls and NCAA basketball tournament appearances, will only increase in future years. Bowlsby said projected revenues will reach $30 million per school by 2015-16, the first year that TCU and West Virginia will receive full shares, and could top $40 million by the end of the league’s existing television contracts with Fox and ESPN that run through the 2024-2025 school year.

May 20, 2013

A bus carrying the TCU baseball team to Oklahoma
City Monday for the Big 12 tournament was forced to pull over at a
rest area south of Pauls
Valley and wait out
storms. The team was scheduled to depart Fort
Worth at 1 p.m. but didn’t leave until almost 2 p.m.

That delay may have prevented the team from being in the path of the tornado
that struck Moore, Okla. around 3 p.m. A tornado threatened Ardmore south of the team’s bus.The team was forced to take detours and back roads to reach its hotel in
downtown Oklahoma City after officials closed
stretches of I-35 between Moore and Oklahoma City. The
normally three-hour trip took the team over six hours to arrive in downtown Oklahoma City.The Horned Frogs open the tournament against Oklahoma
State at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at
Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in downtown Oklahoma
City.

May 15, 2013

With the recent addition of Andrew Wiggins, one of the nation’s top-ranked high school recruits, Kansas joins Kentucky among the early favorites to win the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball championship, based on odds released today by Bovada Sports Book (www.bovada.lv).

Based on today’s odds posted by the website, the primary teams to track as likely participants in the 2014 Final Four, to be held April 5-7, 2014 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, will be Kentucky (5/1 title odds), Kansas (11/2), Louisville (17/2) and Michigan State (12/1).

Louisville won last month’s 2013 title in Atlanta, defeating Michigan, 82-76, in the championship game.Among Texas-based colleges, the teams with the best 2014 NCAA title odds are Baylor (50/1), Texas (100-1) and Texas A&M (200-1). Odds for other projected frontrunners in next year’s Big 12 race include Oklahoma State (50-1), Iowa State (100-1), Kansas State (100-1) and Oklahoma (200-1).

Below is a look at all teams that were giving individual odds to win the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball championship, which will be settled in Arlington:

April 10, 2013

Fox Sports Southwest will offer live telecasts of the Oklahoma and Texas Tech spring football games, network officials announced today.

The telecast of the Oklahoma game, set for Saturday in Norman, Okla. (2 p.m., FSSW), will be preceded by a two-hour pregame show. Tech’s spring game will be played April 20 in Lubbock (1 p.m., FSSW).Both games also will air nationally on Fox College Sports.

Texas A&M’s spring game, set for Saturday (2 p.m., Kyle Field), will be an ESPN national telecast. Network officials announced plans to air the Aggies’ spring game last month.

In May, FSSW officials also will air a series of 30-minue shows recapping spring drills for area colleges. Below is a look at FSSW’s planned schedule of spring football coverage for area colleges:

March 18, 2013

Louisville is the top overall seed in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, based on the findings of basketball selection committee members, but ranks as only a slight favorite over other teams – including No. 3 seed Florida, the favorite in the South Regional – based on odds released today by Bovada Sports Book (www.Bovada.lv).

Although the four top seeds in the various regionals rank among the website’s five teams with the best chance to win the tournament, Louisville (19/4) is given only slightly better odds than fellow No. 1 seeds Indiana (5/1), Gonzaga (10/1) or Kansas (10/1). Florida (7/1) actually received more favorable odds than Kansas, the Big 12 champion, to win the South Regional that will be decided March 29-31 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

With no Texas teams in this year’s event, schools from neighboring states given the best odds to cut down the nets in Atlanta on April 8 include New Mexico (25/1), Oklahoma State (75/1), Oklahoma (250/1), New Mexico State (500/1) and Northwestern (La.) State (500/1).

Below is a look at the odds for all 68 teams in the tournament field, released today:

March 07, 2013

Texas and Texas Tech will play in two of four Thursday night football games to be played by Big 12 teams during the 2013 season, including a Thanksgiving night matchup in Austin, league officials announced today.

The Thursday night telecasts, with times and networks to be announced later, include Texas at Iowa State (Oct. 3), TCU at Texas Tech (Sept. 12), Oklahoma at Baylor (Nov. 7) and Texas Tech at Texas on Thanksgiving night (Nov. 28).

February 20, 2013

Texas will open its spring football drills Thursday in Austin, just 15 days after adding its latest crop of recruits on National Signing Day. And the remainder of Big 12 schools will not be far behind the Longhorns in returning to the field for workouts.

Baylor and TCU begin spring football drills on March 1, with Oklahoma (March 6), Oklahoma State (March 11) and Texas Tech (March 24) opening later in the month. Texas will close its spring drills on Saturday, March 30 with its Orange-White Game in Austin (6:30 p.m., Longhorn Network).

Below is a look at the spring football schedules for league teams:

Big 12 spring football datesBaylor: March 1 start, spring game April 6Iowa State: March 26 start, spring game April 20Kansas: March 5 start, spring game April 13Kansas State: April 3 start, spring game April 27Oklahoma: March 6 start, spring game April 13Oklahoma State: March 11 start, spring game April 20TCU: March 1 start, spring game TBATexas: Thursday start, spring game March 30Texas Tech: March 24 start, spring game April 20West Virginia: March 10 start, spring game April 20

February 19, 2013

Florida, the No. 5 team in this week’s Associated Press poll of men’s college basketball teams, did not earn a single first-place vote from participating panelists. But the Gators (21-3, 11-1 in SEC) have been installed as the favorite to win the 2013 NCAA Tournament, based on odds released today by Bovada Sports Book (www.Bovada.lv).

Florida, which plays tonight at Missouri (18-7, 7-5) received 5/1 odds to win the national title among a very balanced group of favorites. Other teams given the best odds of cutting down the nets in Atlanta, listed with this week’s AP poll ranking, include No. 1 Indiana (11/2), No. 2 Miami (11/2), No. 7 Michigan (15/2), No. 6 Duke (9/1), No. 4 Michigan State (10/1), No. 3 Gonzaga (12/1), No. 10 Louisville (12/1) and No. 9 Kansas (14/1). All other teams received odds of at least 20/1.

Odds given to other Big 12 schools include No. 14 Oklahoma State (50/1), No. 13Kansas State (60/1), Baylor (150/1), Oklahoma (200/1) and Iowa State (200/1).

Below is a breakdown of schools that received individual odds to win the 2013 NCAA Tournament: